Dirt Ignorant, Flag Waving Bigots Out in Force Across the South

In the wake of the actions of a heroic band of activists led by Bree Newsome who removed the Confederate flag in front of South Carolina’s statehouse, it didn’t take long for ugliness to rear its head. First of all, the flag went back up again after only an hour.

Thanks to a hate that won’t die, Bree Newsome’s actions turned out to be less a grand punctuation of South Carolina’s secession than an ellipsis…with more to follow.

White supremacists were out in force yesterday in South Carolina and Alabama and Florida, waving the flags of a defeated nation, some in Confederate uniforms, even more in pot-bellies, all of them racist or ignorant or both.

Trust me, you haven’t seen this many Confederate flags since Robert E. Lee and Ann Coulter’s “greatest army that ever was” got chased out of Pennsylvania with his tale between his legs.

The ugly hand of the League of the South, those staunch defenders of slavery who feel Lincoln was a “Commie” even before Karl Marx came up with the idea, had something to do with the rally in Alabama:

That’s right. These racist white folks see themselves as the real victims, even though none of them are being shot at.

The ones in uniform need to realize the war is over. Because Appomattox. The guys so proud of their “heritage” need to realize that the South seceded over slaves (and South Carolina in particular made no secret of this) and that the flag therefore represents slavery.

The General Government, as the common agent, passed laws to carry into effect these stipulations of the States. For many years these laws were executed. But an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the General Government have ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution…and the consequence follows that South Carolina is released from her obligation.

Defenders of the flag need to realize that after the Civil War, nobody was flying this thing, including Robert E. Lee. It is funny how “heritage” didn’t suddenly become important until the descendants of the people who used to be slaves suddenly started to get the same rights they had.

Zack Peterson at The Tampa Bay Times writes that William Pew, 38 of Bloomingdale, who helped organize the rally at Brandon, Florida, said, “It’s about any flag. We’re riding for what we’re proud of: white, black, Spanish.”

So he thinks his Confederate flag somehow represents blacks?

Excuses abound: “The U.S. flag was also flown under slavery,” a 19-year-old rally organizer said.

But the United States didn’t fight a war to preserve slavery. The U.S. flag was waved by the guys who put an end to it.

Maybe Confederate flag supporters all went to the same school as Ann Coulter to study history.

Peterson records another shining example of reasoning: “There was slavery. There was hate. It’s a couple of hundred years later, and we’ve changed. (The flag) has a whole new meaning.”

No. The flag does not have a whole new meaning, no more so than the Nazi flag 150 years from now. That isn’t how it works.

All this and more were the fruits of the Confederate flag “Drive for Pride” from Brandon to Tampa Bay and back again on Friday night. Kendra Conlon of Tampa Bay’s WTSP reports that there were 300 cars with Confederate flags. They were planning another rally for Saturday.

We had a moment of joy as Bree Newsome grabbed hold of that flag and brought it down. It seemed the perfect response to the shots fired on Fort Sumter by people determined blacks were fit only to be slaves.

Of course racists can wave their racist flag around. It’s individual and therefore protected speech. When flying from or in front of a statehouse, it’s government speech, and that is not protected by the First Amendment.

I would be more interested in knowing at what point did the First Amendment cease to apply to opponents of what that flag stands for? If they can wave their racist flag, we can call them racists for doing so.

As you can see, racists won’t surrender their “proud” heritage so easily. The struggle goes on, and will continue to go on while people are brought up, bereft of a sound education and exposure to diversity, content in the “knowledge” that in ignorance is found freedom.

We have a long way to go, America. Progress has not quite reached across the Mason-Dixon Line, and once again, it’s going to need our helping hand.

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.

A helping hand? They will slap it away. They are ignorant, racist fools. I say ignore them. At least they weren’t all carrying their assault weapons…they had to have a hand free for their lawn chairs, I guess. Let them gather with their hateful pieces of cloth. Let them whine and stomp their boots, or their flip-flops. Eventually they will all die out, and those flags will be buried with them. Love to see St. Peter’s face when they arrive at the Pearly gates dressed in their Confederate flags, though.

These bigoted people are not just in the south. One needs only to look to Alaska with its white trash Palin family or to Wisconsin whom elected the evil Scott Walker. Let us not forget Michelle Bachman from Minnesota. The south is always the target even though all regions of the USA are eaten alive with bigots.

The only problem with the idea of leaving them alone and the ideology will die out is that just like pests when the ideology is not exposed for what it is, the ideology only spreads faster. You look at these older people in the photos and think it is just the older generations, but Roofs was 21 and one of the quotes in this article is from a 19 year old. The big problem is that American History needs to be taught with ALL of the ugly truths exposed. Including the atrocities of slavery, prison camps during the civil war (both north and south), internment camps during WWII that imprisoned Japanese Americans for no other reason than their ancestors were Asian. Until we teach our children the ugly truths about our history there will be no change.

To make this easy, a tabulation of the number of times these words/phrases are found in “Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union”:

Coming to America, 4 or 500 years ago. Rowing. Stars & stripes on his/her forehead. Wondering how high a price they’ll be sold for, women wondering whether they might be pregnant from one or more of the ship’s crew & captains. We’ve still got monsters that believe in this cruelty and would like to rekindle this kind of inhumane treatment of other human beings. Got a reality check for the confederate bastards, this will never happen again. No matter what you’ve been told or shown. We are not for sale. And dammit, we didn’t book reservations on your ships. Pick your own cotton. And this also goes for law enforcement, you can’t kill us all and not pay for your misdeeds toward minorities. You’ve driven this bigotry very close to the breaking point. You have no shame & nothing’s beneath you.

The country is disgusted and fed up with all this killing. So the people that are really in control of this country and the media had to come up with an “issue” to take attention away from the far more important things at stake and are in great danger of getting out of control, the real agenda and huge profits.
The confederate rag IS a symbol for a paltry few truly ignorant and easily manipulated people. It does need to be taken down. Wonder how many of those people were being paid for that gig?
Exactly how many Americans out of over three million care about that rag? How much media time has been spent the last week about the roll the NRA plays in these murders? How much money is given to politicians to condon murder is a drop in the bucket compared to the people that benefit from the blood soaked stocks in these companies. Let’s not be manipulated into forgetting what is really important and start trying to change THAT.

These low-educated, inbred nutjobs will never change their minds with proven facts, their only “sanity” resides in their heritage fantasy. I believe the election of President Barack Obama really sent them into some sort of psychosis.

I don’t think the Confed flag is a symbol of slavery, but about secession. A section of the country wanted to be separated from the USA and do things its way and not under the jurisdition of the United States govt.
In that way, perhaps it would have been better for the South to free the slaves, let them move on if they wanted, and those that wanted to remain remain. But the South would stay a separate entity from the United States.
The South has never really been apart of the USA in spirit. So maybe it’s time for it to think secession again?
I don’t know how logistically they would secede, but they’re ruining the country for the rest of us.

Nah, it wasn’t Obama. If anything his election accelerated it, but it was headed that way for a long time.
I honestly would like to see the South secede from the rest of the United States and see how that worked out.

Well, we had to expect some redneck blowback. Dale Jr’s comments were welcome, hopefully more NASCAR guys will come forward. Eventually the Bubbas and Bubbettes will find something else to protest, like the cancellation of the Duggars TV show.

The flag they so proudly fly to exhibit their bigotry and ignorance is the battle flag of the traitors and enemies of the United States. And they know it. And all this while their impoverished States take in more Federal dollars than they give, just to survive.

It’s because in their racist little minds, they’re still at war with the United States of America, hence the choice to fly the Confederate battle flag rather than the Confederate’s official flag.

The only flag these sore-losers should be flying is the white flag of surrender. That’s their heritage and that would project the truth.

You have to hand it to them, though…they are the most insistent and persistent sore-losers in the world.

Some 150 years ago, the south wanted to secede for purely economic reasons (yes, it nearly ALWAYS comes down to money). They couldn’t maintain their plantations and their way of life without their slaves. And they determined that their slaves were only 3/5 human, otherwise they really couldn’t have lived with themselves otherwise, being such “good Christians and all”.
Today, the south can’t afford to secede — they depend far too much on the rest of the U.S., and in particular the military and the military industrial complex. I’m sure this frustrates the hell out of them, now that they’re having to face reality, and especially knowing that the ROTUS (rest of the US) is not going to put up with their racist ways any longer. Their chickens have finally come home to roost…

Is it time for a U.S. Truth and Reconciliation Commission? Canada just went through something similar with its First Nations people and the religious residential schools that their children were, for decades, sent to, to “get the Indian out of them”. Ugh.

I suggest we give them what they want .. and deserve. Move all of those military bases out of Texas to the north. See how they like losing thousands of jobs and billions in income. If they secede, the U.S. saves billions in Social Security payments because they are no longer American ciitzens. They will be begging!, to come back.

Yes, ignorance is alive and well. Get the facts right, please, and stop being an ignorant, reactionary, ill-informed, biased, and moronic writer. Read the history of our country; learn more about what symbols were in the time and not how revisionists have couched them. And, most of all, stop doing what you accuse others of: finding points of separation and division. Be an American and not a judge.

Dumbass you are defending traitors. That piece of rag was symbol of one man owning another. Now I know being homeschooled and all around idiot you don’t the history of this country or the reason for the Civil war so I will enlighten your racist ass with their own words

Mississippi

A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union.

In the momentous step which our State has taken of dissolving its connection with the government of which we so long formed a part, it is but just that we should declare the prominent reasons which have induced our course.

Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery– the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin. That we do not overstate the dangers to our institution, a reference to a few facts will sufficiently prove.

The hostility to this institution commenced before the adoption of the Constitution, and was manifested in the well-known Ordinance of 1787, in regard to the Northwestern Territory.

The feeling increased, until, in 1819-20, it deprived the South of more than half the vast territory acquired from France.

The same hostility dismembered Texas and seized upon all the territory acquired from Mexico.

It has grown until it denies the right of property in slaves, and refuses protection to that right on the high seas, in the Territories, and wherever the government of the United States had jurisdiction.

It refuses the admission of new slave States into the Union, and seeks to extinguish it by confining it within its present limits, denying the power of expansion.

It tramples the original equality of the South under foot.

It has nullified the Fugitive Slave Law in almost every free State in the Union, and has utterly broken the compact which our fathers pledged their faith to maintain.

It advocates negro equality, socially and politically, and promotes insurrection and incendiarism in our midst.

It has enlisted its press, its pulpit and its schools against us, until the whole popular mind of the North is excited and inflamed with prejudice.

It has made combinations and formed associations to carry out its schemes of emancipation in the States and wherever else slavery exists.

It seeks not to elevate or to support the slave, but to destroy his present condition without providing a better.

It has invaded a State, and invested with the honors of martyrdom the wretch whose purpose was to apply flames to our dwellings, and the weapons of destruction to our lives.

It has broken every compact into which it has entered for our security.

It has given indubitable evidence of its design to ruin our agriculture, to prostrate our industrial pursuits and to destroy our social system.

It knows no relenting or hesitation in its purposes; it stops not in its march of aggression, and leaves us no room to hope for cessation or for pause.

It has recently obtained control of the Government, by the prosecution of its unhallowed schemes, and destroyed the last expectation of living together in friendship and brotherhood.

Utter subjugation awaits us in the Union, if we should consent longer to remain in it. It is not a matter of choice, but of necessity. We must either submit to degradation, and to the loss of property worth four billions of money, or we must secede from the Union framed by our fathers, to secure this as well as every other species of property. For far less cause than this, our fathers separated from the Crown of England.

Another dumbass.
Thee KKK stole the Confederate flag and put the noose of hate and racism on that flag and it stuck with the American people for the past 150 years.
————————–
Bitch please that flag was symbol to ensure the right of slavery it has nothing to do with the kkk other they are just following your ancestors footsteps

The Confederate AND the Tea Party flag.
But tell me one thing, why all the scatalogical references with the Tea Party?
The name they use to identify themselves with is a sex act, and the color of their flag is piss yellow.
Idiots.

This looks like a good place to point out something I wanted to add to the article.

While the SC declaration did not specifically use the words “states’ rights,” they did specifically cite complaints that the federal government had not sufficiently supported and enforced the Fugitive Slave Act (that forced people to return run-away slaves to their masters). They complained that several states, like Ohio and Mich., had enacted laws intended to minimize the FSA. Or, in more direct language, one of their reasons to justify seceding was that the US had not OVERRULED ‘states’ rights’ in cases like this.
So they did not want states’ rights if those gave OTHER states any rights that diminished laws that supported slavery. Just more proof of that secession wasn’t about ‘high tariffs’ or any of those other fairy tales. First, last, and always about slavery.

No, we should NOT remove Confederate symbols from public places. No, we should NOT condemn anyone who has them on their private property. However, the reasons for this are NOT to in any way condone racism. NO ONE is supporting that or proposing a reinstitution of slavery. The exact opposite is what the goal should be; to make sure that that dark era of history NEVER repeats itself. By keeping these historical symbols in public view, it ensures that that history is not forgotten. If we allow ourselves to forget the past, we will be condemned to repeat it.

This is why we Southerner are 100 years behind the times and considered ignorant and stupid. The C.F. should have been done away with 150 years ago.

Image if Nazi sympathizers were allowed to display the Swastika everywhere, this country wouldn’t tolerate it, not for even one measly second.
Nobody marching is black, and that there is the problem. The C.F. is to African-Americans what the Swastika is to Jewish people

I know it seems too easy, but it’s always fun to use what someone says to show them how silly their position is…

You say:

Stop pretending the Confederate flag is a symbol of racism and hate, its not. The Illuminati is using the Confederate flag to stir dissension between blacks and whites in hopes to start a race war.

So, granting your assumption that the “Illuminati” are real, WHY would you think they are “using the CS flag to stir dissension…”? What would their point be, unless the flag is well established as a ‘symbol of racism and hate’?

Sorry. You lose. On both counts. Original secession was primarily about slavery (money, yes– power, yes– the Southern 1% wanting to grab even more of both, yes…but that all came down to slavery).
And you lost again when southern state government buildings started flying the flag– not the official CS flag, but THIS flag– in response to civil rights legislation.

They should consider themselves lucky that the leaders of their rebellion weren’t summarily executed as traitors after Appomattox. The US government at the time showed remarkable restraint and forgiveness.

Southerners have got to realize that Margaret Mitchell was a writer of fiction. She did not chronicle the romance of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. She made it up. Of course, she was helped by historians like Edward A. Pollard, author of the 1866 whitewash of the war, The Lost Cause (The Standard Southern History of the War of the Confederates). She was also helped by the articles of Jubal Early, and the autobiography of Jefferson Davis, all of whom claimed that, in spite of all written evidence to the contrary, the Civil War was not fought over slavery. But it was always a fairy tale.
Southerners stole people. They robbed people of their freedom. And they did not just rob them of their liberty and their labor, they robbed them of their progeny. They robbed their descendants of a future. This is the heritage of the South. This is the infamous Lost Cause that many today still consider so noble that they have enshrined it into a veritable altar at which we are expected to pay homage. Or at the very least respect.
Read Morehttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/28/1396273/–Gone-With-the-Wind-The-real-Southern-heritage

That flag represents to the majority of people in this country nothing more than hate and bigotry. It represents what the south fought for – the right to keep and own HUMAN BEINGS. Oh sure, there were “lots” of reasons for the south to want to secede, but your kidding yourself if you overlook that major reason.

So, you want to fly something or wear something that comes with that “heritage” attached? So be it. BUT IT DOES NOT BELONG ON GOVERNMENT PROPERTY BECAUSE WE ARE ALL EQUAL UNDER THE LAW.

And by the way, those flags and all that merchandise with the flags on it? Yeah, most of it’s made in China.

That flag belongs in the dustbin of history and is unnecessary to remind us of the awful events that took place so long ago; events born out of human bondage.

Perhaps if it were THE last bit of evidence we had for a Civil War that nearly tore the country apart, maybe then your argument would hold water.

But take a look at the states that don’t fly that accursed thing. THEY haven’t forgotten slavery and future generations will know of slavery because we have much evidence for both it and the Civil War. Visit just about any major museum, and even some small, local museums, in this country, and you will see enough evidence to keep reminding us for generations to come.

No, we won’t forget and we certainly don’t need what is for many a symbol of hate and bigotry to remind us.

To make this easy, the dude that nobody knows has determined himself to be the sole arbiter of the cause/causes of the civil war.

Historians and scholars disagree over the causes of the war and disagreement among them persists today… so cherry picking “evidence” that supports your preconceived notions while ignoring large quantities of contradictory material doesn’t make your argument correct.

*That* flag was never even the official flag of the Confederacy. It existed as the canton (union) of two such flags, was a naval ensign of several vessels, and was flown by the Northern Virginia as a residential battle flag. The first insurrectionary flag was the Bonnie Blue (white star on blue ground), and all the “national” flags had white fields. The present “Confederate flag” was adopted into the official use of only one organization…the KKK.

OMG really ???? The Confederate Flag has always been a symbol of hate & bigotry !!!!! To those of you who live in the South and was born here just like I was and you still support this form of HATE & BIGORTY remember this your ass lost the war well over 100 years ago get the hell over it !!! William Douglas Poplin

As a Black, descendent of the enslaved, THE main issue is the belief and practice of racism/white supremacy… You can take down every symbol, monument and piece of literature but you can’t change people’s hearts unless they are willing … The question is WHY DO THEY HATE people so much as to inflict brutality against them… Let them have their symbols and monuments …. there’s a bigger war here … stop expending time-waisting energy and use it where it really counts … the creation of an productive, peaceful and prosperous environment that totally excludes the likes of them because they’ll never stop fighting us, they hate us …. You’ll be much much more happier…..

The square version of this flag was a state’s battle flag. The rectangular version was the Confederate Navy’s flag. The only people wanting this flag to represent race and slavery are the race baiters once again wanting to change the history of the United States. And what about those black white racists in the pic for this article? What’s up with that?

If you really think the Civil War was only about race and slavery you really need to go read a book.

The thing that folks are forgetting is that by an act of Congress ALL of the soldiers on both sides of the Civil War are American veterans. And by denergrating the flags they fought under you are disrespecting those American soldiers. Shame on you!

Sources such as the Declarations of Causes are certainly needed for a balanced study of history but this source alone won’t lead us to any undeniable conclusions as to the root cause of the war. Read the SC Declaration of Causes and you’ll see that very little was written on the issue of slavery (As a percentage to the whole document.)

It’s always been a divisive issue with some people believing the war was about state’s rights, and some believing it was about slavery. Or both equally.

The root cause of the civil war was slavery, point blank. Now since slavery was the bulk of US GDP
Without Slavery, Would The U.S. Be The Leading Economic Power?
During the middle of the 1800s, cotton became the world’s largest commodity. The cheapest and best cotton came from the southern United States.

Edward Baptist argues in his new book, “The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism,” that the forced migration and subsequent harsh treatment of slaves in the cotton fields was integral to establishing the United States as a world economic power.

Right – O Dick 46 – I, too saw this episode of Jesse Ventura’s Conspiracy Theory. Racism has been around for hundreds of years. African-Americans dont need a race war, their Americanism was proven in the last 2 presidential elections. Yay!

The apologists for the Confederate flag like to say that it’s all about southern heritage and pride. Oh, REALLY? Count how many faces of color you see amongst these groups of Neanderthal throwbacks: ZERO!
These knuckle-draggers might as well be flying the swastika or some white hoods. We know very well who they are, and what they stand for. It’s nothing to be proud of.

words just cannot describe how disgusting this is and how disgusting those people are. there are illegals in this nation who are far, far, far more American and Patriotic than any of these Confederate Sympathizing rightwing idiots could ever hope to be.

It wasn’t secession, it was treason. Those flag wavers follow traitors to the country they profess to love so much. White anger is fun to watch. Just popped me some GMO popcorn to go with my unlabeled beef slime hamburger and I’m going to watch some fiction show called Fo
x News. God bless the USA

Everyone knows the basis of the civil war was South succession from the union with strong advocation of states rights and continued enslavement of humans as major components … You can quibble over the form of the symbol they fought under, but it doesn’t change the politics behind the symbol …. This country started out and will forever be damned because the justice they practice is not true justice ….

I can’t see how the writer of this article is any different than those he claims this article is about – to look at someone, and stereotype them because of what you see, is no different than saying all black people who listen to rap are gangsters, or that all Muslims who wear a turbine are extreme – quit with the name calling – you aren’t impressing the intelligent people one bit.

Valeria,
While I am sure you mean well I believe you are mistaken. No other country ever keeps the symbols of insurrectionist philosophy in honored places after defeating the insurrection. Had Lincoln had someone other than Andrew Johnson for VP in his second term the U S wouldn’t either.
my interpretation of that period is that the Republicans were trying to prevent the return of the former slave owners to power but were stymied by Andrew Johnson.

I laughed a little when I read Charlie and others using the old worn out “states rights” meme. Google Lee Atwater and see just how forced busing and states rights took the place of ni##er, ni##er, ni##er. Lee was the architect of the Southern Strategy that flipped the parties.

Bitch please. So some blacks own slaves. So what, you white supremacist committed treason for the sole reason in enslaving people who thought was inferior

…in this free government all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil and political rights; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding states….http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/primarysources/declarationofcauses.html#Texas

This article is so left-written. Did you, the author of this article – actually interview these people to be sure they are what you call them: Bigots and racists – or did you clarify/vet this article to make sure they were not just southern people, who like the southern flag? I am from SC, and I don’t see the flag as you do – it simply means the South. Some of southern history is good, some bad. But I would like to know what your sources are – to make sure you are not stereotyping innocent people, just for publishing hype. If you are legitimate – you will provide this information. No one should assume that someone with a confederate flag is a racist or bigot – I am not, and no one I know is either. How would you like someone you feel strongly about away? Don’t stereotype everyone – people are not all alike.

You want to know what are our sources? From the same racist you revere
Upon the principles then announced by Mr. Lincoln and his leading friends, we are bound to expect his administration to be conducted. Hence it is, that in high places, among the Republi­can party, the election of Mr. Lincoln is hailed, not simply as it change of Administration, but as the inauguration of new princi­ples, and a new theory of Government, and even as the downfall of slavery. Therefore it is that the election of Mr. Lincoln cannot be regarded otherwise than a solemn declaration, on the part of a great majority of the Northern people, of hostility to the South, her property and her institutions—nothing less than an open declaration of war—for the triumph of this new theory of Government destroys the property of the South, lays waste her fields, and inaugurates all the horrors of a San Domingo servile insurrection, consigning her citizens to assassinations, and. her wives and daughters to pollution and violation, to gratify the lust of half-civilized Africans.http://www.confederatepastpresent.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=123:alabama-legislature-resolves-to-secede-if-a-republican-is-elected-president&catid=41:the-gathering-storm

Northern States used slaves also – and it was legal right up until the civil war – so slavery isn’t unique to the South – and no one has ever suggested we start it up again. Has anyone ever said this to you – because I’ve never heard that – from anyone – ever. Educate yourself on everyone who used slaves years ago – no one wants this in the US. Whoever is telling you that they are – is mentally ill.

By “sources” I mean – did someone just take this picture, and assume these people are racists? And write a story – or did they talk to the organizers or the people in the picture, to make sure they are not just people who don’t want the flag taken down for reasons of history. Soldier did die in the war, and they were Americans. And a lot of them, didn’t want to fight – but felt they needed to protect their states, as anyone living in a state would do. Many black people also fought on the confederate side – were they racists? Do their lives matter? Sounds like an awful lot of hate going on in this stream….enough to call all of you bigots – you all hate republicans, and people who don’t think like you do – so how are you any different? Hate is hate – whether you think you are “hating” for the right reason, really doesn’t matter. You hate them, they hate you…it’s all the same. But I’m sure you can’t see that. I’m asking if someone interviewed these people, that’s al…

I just have to say that I got this gut feeling that sex is involved in all this. These red-necks like complete dominance over women. They reject the whole idea of rape and come up with every kind of excuse to excuse the rapist, not believe or even blame the victim. I think there is a reason that almost every single black person on Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has some white master contributing his DNA. It may be that red necks arent just obsessing over losing their slaves/slave labor, but their fantasy of access to slave women or even boys whenever they wanted. It is the loss of their superiority and status no matter what kind underclass/grubby existence they came from or are living in the “olden days” they thought they were better than women and better than slaves. And the politicians and the 1% have exploited this fantasy and yearning turning it into hate and votes.

This article, itself, is full of prejudice and hateful rhetoric. I’m a progressive who was born a Yankee but raised in the Deep South; spent most of my adult life working in social justice, political, and environmental nonprofits; and now live in Berkeley, CA, where I’m active with Black Lives Matter. To characterize all defenders of the Confederate flag and all supporters of Southern heritage as racist bigots is no better than saying the same of any American who celebrates Columbus Day. I know plenty of liberal Southerners who work for social justice and who also value those aspects of the varied and rich heritage of the South which have nothing to do with slavery or racism, including some who defend the Confederate flag. Whether or not you agree that the two can be separated (and I agree with you that they cannot), it’s inaccurate and unfair to label them all racists. How about modeling the fairness you want to see in the world?

This article, itself, is full of prejudice and hateful rhetoric. I’m a progressive who was born a Yankee but raised in the Deep South; am 1/8 Cherokee; spent most of my adult life working in social justice, political, and environmental nonprofits; and now live in Berkeley, CA, where I’m active with Black Lives Matter. To characterize all defenders of the Confederate flag and all supporters of Southern heritage as ignorant racist bigots is inaccurate and unfair. I know plenty of liberal Southerners who work for social justice and who also value those aspects of the varied and rich heritage of the South which have nothing to do with slavery or racism. Whether or not you agree that the flag can be separated from its racist symbolism (and I agree with you that they cannot), it’s inaccurate and unfair to label everyone defending it as ignorant racist bigots. How about modeling fairness and accuracy by reporting on the event without all of the broad generalizations?

Stop with your nonsense. If you say who you are then I would suggest learn some real histoty
It is difficult for modern Americans to understand such militant commitment to the bondage of others. But at $3.5 billion, the four million enslaved African Americans in the South represented the country’s greatest financial asset. And the dollar amount does not hint at the force of enslavement as a social institution. By the onset of the Civil War, Southern slaveholders believed that African slavery was one of the great organizing institutions in world history, superior to the “free society” of the North.https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-economics-of-the-civil-war/

What on earth would give you that notion? Informing state governments they had no right to restrict marriage based on gender does not, in fact, give any CCW permit you might have validity outside of the jurisdiction in which it was issued. The ruling here was rather specific in it’s intent and wording. Anti-gun laws are applied quite equally, at any rate, so there isn’t even a basis for a 14th Amendment case anyway; it isn’t like Chicago passed a law saying white people can’t carry guns into Chicago or New York passed a law preventing Seventh Day Adventists from purchasing ammunition.

Because all of your rhetoric is almost word for word that many of the NAMBLA have to say to justify their existence.

The FACT that the Confederate Flag is considered now, and has been considered to be a symbol of the Racist South- who felt that Slavery was a necessity, for generations, by Southerners such as the KKK- will not be made pure by those who like to claim that it’s not what they intended to ‘honor’ now.

The Confederate Flag is like a soggy tissue paper clogged with yellow and green snot. No one in their right mind is gonna get someone else to say it’s good…for anything except getting rid of. That Flag is a Filthy reminder of evil things done in the name of God and The Bible.

Can we still fly the Bonnie Blue or is that also considered racist? Do we have to do away with all the monuments to Robert E. Lee and ‘Stonewall’ Jackson? Should we also close Virginia Military Institute?

Do we have to do away with EVERYTHING that reminds us of the Confederacy?

You can fly any flag at any time and at any expense that is your own. You can even parade down the street with it, as the Skokie case demonstrates. You cannot do so on government property or at government expense.

Got a simple question: I wonder how long any of the black people who claim to love the Confederate flag (and love displaying it)would last if they showed up waiving their Confederate flags and jumped in the middle of a crowd like this? Any answers or thoughts?

We are all Americans. You all want to live here, let’s get along.
I am ok with the flag being taken down. However I’m not going to hover on a website and name call and insult others bc their views are different than mine. I am secure in my life.
I also under stand that all this happened 150 years AGO.
So as those people protest in from of those buildings you all protest on this site, behind your computers. You are no better.
The writer of this story has no empathy for anyone using those hurtful words. What a coward.
I dont see or feel racism. It doesn’t live in my heart so I don’t fear it.
take your own advices and change your narrow minds and hearts as well.

Aren’t you doing the same thing behind your computer. Protesting. Employers may see your post as well. All these post make me laugh. The flags are down. Why are you still whinning.
I’m happy but Its one step. why gloat. And bc they want what they feel is heritage given back, be happy that what you all call racist, slavery, treason has been removed.
Be happy and stop baiting.
Freedom to all!!

Classy post.
No not at all. There has been a victory to remove the flag. Who cares if they protest. You protest behind your computer bc they don’t feel the way you do. They have every right to be there. Just as there was every reason to remove the flag.

You fight for your rights. They fight for their rights, its peaceful.

So why throw slurs. You only make us all look bad. It’s a victory. It’s distastful and all those that chose to look critical you are as bad as the protestors. Pot or the kettle?

Guess another civil war would suit you.
I agree with removing the flag but I was born and raised in the south. I don’t appreciate the name calling of people that live in a different area than you own. Ferguson is in the north. Look at their protest.
You are just as racist as the people that want the flag.
Thank you.

John I guess they should have lined up at Ferguson. Protesting is a freedom. Maybe you should line up as well protesting behind your computer. Just are just as big of a bigot as they are.
You all say you aren’t racist but you sit here calling names. Even worse.

Omg!
Are you that paranoid that you think someone is trying to make you are slave?
You are seriously delusional and you are using this for your own personal crusade.
I disagree with the flag. But I live in America. The land of the free and has been for 150 years.
I have yet to see any white looking to get a slave. Wow. Lol.
When did you start having these feelings? You need serious help.

All you have done is name call. You must feel you have some god given power over others. Just a bully. No better than the writer of this article. Too illiterate to talk as an adult. As a descent human. To do as MLk said to love others and find peace. You look for a fight.

Reynardine,
I agree with removing a flag not bc of a dumb white boy but bc it’s morally right. So let’s be morally correct and let others live their freedom just as gays and all of our people.
I have no problem with it but funny those that have finally got the flag removed aren’t happy yet.

Where I come from the only losers that fly that rag are racists. I guess that famous reichteous,bible belt slogan: “hate the sin not the sinner” doesn’t go both ways when it comes to the truth of the CF?

No one is taking their freedom away. They are free to carry and wave their flags of hatred and bigotry – they just shouldn’t be able to have their flag flying over any State House.

We on the other side of this issue also should not be told that we shouldn’t be pointing out their idiocy – that is our right of freedom. Freedom of speech works both ways. If they have the freedom to be bigots, we have the freedom to point it out.

@Amy…just answer this one question please….” Southerners who work for social justice and who also value those aspects of the varied and rich heritage of the South which have nothing to do with slavery or racism”

The real beginning of the Civil War began with the Missouri Compromise. To understand the cause and effect of Southern secession and the history of the Civil War all need to go back to the Missouri Compromise.

All this hoohaa about States Rights is a smoke screen to cover up what the core of secession was really about. FYI – none of the States that signed onto secession denied what the core reason was – the hope of & ability to purchase and own a human was the #1 reason. So, stop kidding yourselves. Read about the Missouri Compromise.

We have officially reached peak wackadoo …but…. exactly what can be expected from those who like to engage in long distance psychoanalysis of Southerners without having any extensive personal experience in the region. Interestingly, every one who has actually experienced living in the South calls bullshit on the theme of “them-awful -Southerners. ”
Let me be the first to enlighten you. Horrible people know no borders and no region in the world has a patent on mean-n-stupid. Thanks providing further evidence of that fact.

I have never flown or owned a confederate flag…. But I see a lot of opinion in these statement an little facts. Except the declaration of secession somebody as he stated it was all about maintaining slavery….. Did you read it? There was also statements about seizing southern lands. I am anti racist anti slavery and pro equality….. I was to tell you though,I am hearing as much hate from the anti confederate flag side…. The media is using this topic to manipulate you. This isn’t a republican/ democrat thing…. I see posts online of people from both sides claiming each other responsible for slavery. In light of the all the hate,Here are a few facts I’ve come across:

Eleven uncomfortable, hard cold Historical Facts which America has suppressed for 150 years:
1. The Civil War was initially fought over…Money not slavery.
2. Between 1776 and 1861, the largest concentration of slave owners in America were…Northerners. Prior to the fall of Fort Sumter in 1861, most all of the Southern States were constructing laws to abolish slavery.
3. General William Tecumseh Sherman owned a large number of slaves and refused to free them until late 1865.
4. General Ulysses S. Grant was a slave owner and refused to grant his slaves freedom until the 13th Amendment forced him to do so. He reluctantly released them, protesting that he would now have to pay for his laborers and he would not be able to find “Good help.”
5. General Robert E. Lee freed his slaves (whom he had inherited) by 1863, (never bought) saying, “It is a senseless act of barbarianism to enslave another human life.”
6. The Northern State of Delaware refused to ratify the 13th Amendment until…

Emmm…you’re entitled to your own opinions, but not your own history. Kindly explain, for example, how a resident of Jo Daviess County, Illinois, a Northwest Ordinance state, is supposed to have had all these slaves, or how the Southern states, which explicitly stated they seceded to preserve their “peculiar institution” and used to hang abolitionists when they caught them, were planning to abolish slavery.

Somewhere in yesterday’s posts is the statement that Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto in 1848. But Abraham Lincoln’s Spot Resolution was written in 1847. Why was a young Congressman from Illinois interested in what was going on in Texas? Answer: Slavery. Mexico declared its independence from Spain on 16 September 1810 (El Grito) and in 1829, Mexico abolished slavery throughout the country including Texas. But the USA citizens in Texas loved slavery. So the war for Texas independence was over slavery, pure and simple. [WINK]

PS The Gadsden Purchase was made for one reason and one reason only: To build the Southern Pacific Railroad to link Texas to the Pacific Coast so Texans could have a market to sell their wares.
Re Texas, Molly Ivins was right. Being slightly paranoid is like being slightly pregnant. It tends to get worse. [WINK]

Every thing you wrote is a lie, half truth or just plain bullshit. Your first statement shows how ignorant you are.
1. The Civil War was initially fought over…Money not slavery.
———————————–
Child please, the southern economy was based on slavery. The last president who ever owned slaves was, ironically, Ulysses S. Grant, elected in 1868 after he had commanded Union forces to victory over the Confederacy in the war that led to the abolition of slavery. Grant owned a slave named William Jones, whom he freed in 1859. http://www.factcheck.org/2007/12/presidents-who-owned-slaves/
Sherman the first superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy rented one slave never owned any.

To get this straight… Gay Marriage IS NOT comparative with the enslavement of humans … Gay Marriage is a human behavior to be practiced or not …. enslavement of humans is the ability to exist, especially in freedom or not …. Get straight and stop the false comparison … it’s insulting to my enslaved and jim crowed ancestors ….

I didnt know the business of slaves only being 3/5ths of a person was about taxes. According to that South Carolina statement in full, it was. Everything is always about money.
Also, a lot of the Union soldiers were just as racist as the Southerners…they were fighting for the Union, not to abolish slavery.
And also, in the earlier days of the USA, there were a fair few black slaveholders. Some of those were very big slaveholders indeed…some even held their own families as slaves.
And here is interesting. In 1864, when slavery ended in the USA, over 90% of the world’s population…including most African countries…were slaves or serfs. Russia had only just ended serfdom. Everyone in Tibet was a serf…and treated far worse, by those Buddhist monks, than any slave in the US. Whole African countries held their populations as slaves to an elite. This is why they had no problem selling their people to white slavers: it was just normal to them.
It was FREEDOM that was the except…

The thing is, that those who settled the South were overwhelmingly Scots and Irish. People who had been kicked around throughout history by the English. They wanted to feel superior to someone, hence the colour prejudice. The Portuguese were the biggest slavers: but they were once colonized by Africans, they had trade links with Africa, and did deals with Africans for slaves. No colour line. They didnt need to feel superior. It makes a difference. The Southerners were insecure, so they made up aristocratic histories for themselves. They needed to keep blacks down to feel important. Ppl are like that. Lots of black soldiers kicked the Vietnamese around, same reason.

Wasn’t it that 99% of the dirt poor Southern Whites went to fight and die for their rich white landowners’ rights to keep their slaves? Which one of those good ol’ rebels had a slave? NONE. Maybe some in the “officer & a Gentleman” class owned one or two. The rest of those barefoot rebels just didn’t want the slaves freed to compete with them. The need to keep another race down (happened to be black Africans) made the poor whites feel superior to something or somebody, thereby given them some sort of status in the Southern states. Otherwise they would have been looked down upon too by the rich, white, educated landowners.
Look at those holding the Rebel flag now…descendants of the poor whites of the south. You can tell. It’s etched on their faces.

Hank, if the South wants to try seceding again, would you come pick up this white woman who doesn’t care what color a person is? It is what is in the heart that matters. I am on Disability, abhor the Confederate Battle Flag, believe that most Southern white men are gun-carrying loonies, and will gladly leave them to their own devices in a heartbeat. I know they will come crawling back after a short time without the Federal Government’s help.

…another book that gives a LOT of historical accuracy is “A team of Rivals” about the unlikely bunch that were political rivals; but wound up in Lincolns Cabinet…for example, SecWar Stanton wanted to make the South learn a lesson ‘that will sear and brand them for all Eternity’.{I think I got that quote right}…VP Johnson wanted to follow Lincolns legacy to the letter…
{Spoiler: Nothing I read in that massive tome contradicts DJ or Reynardine…}

…Sorry to forget ya earlier Moongrim…
Back in November of 1982, I swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of these United States against ALL ENEMIES, FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC…unlike Teatard politicians, NOBODY before, then, or since told me that oath had an expiration date…
…wanna hold up a bunch of fluckin’ traitors as your heros??? And fly that battle-flag as YOUR symbol???
WELCOME TO MY PERMANENT SHIITE LIST!!!
…btw, even though I disagreed with DJ on ONE issue,{Vehemently!!!} I never denigrated him once…just sayin’…

Wait…on second thought, maybe I have a repressed urge to sleep with your sister.

Keep talking, I’m sure I can come up with an airtight diagnosis.

Nah, never mind… diagnosing someone with a mental disorder on the basis of their poor behavior, would effectively be justifying their behavior. Then you just turn someone who is an a**hole…into an a**hole who can’t help it.

The ‘South” has more than their fair share of Assholes. And I’m just fine with that. If anything else- I’d export the racist scumbags we’ve got stinking up the place here in Oregon to down yonder.
Yes they’d breed like rabbits, and make their family tree into a bush, but what the hay!

And no you don’t wanna bang my sister. She’s a coke freak- with everything such a position comes with.
But ya-ta-hey, whatever floats your boat chuck.

Looks like other parts of the country are giving the South a run for the money.

I’m a born and raised NY’er now living in the South. Ask me my opinion, and I’d honestly tell you that in my experience, racism is much less evident where I live now and that the South gets a bum rap. Southerners are not the ignorant, inbreeding, toothless, gun-toting trailer trash that they are painted as and I wouldn’t go back to NY if you paid me.

Thanks for the heads up about your sister.
Another dream derailed. :-)

The rebel flag represented the soldiers, not the political cause for which they were asked to die. That flag was only used in battle, and then after the war for memorial and to honor the heroism and sacrifice men made for their states. Today it represents the Southern people as a whole.

The confederate battle flag has never been the official flag of the KKK. It *is* however the official flag of the Union of Confederate Veterans, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and other such memorial organizations.

It does not represent me. It does not represent most black Southerners, nor yet many white ones. For a while, it stood for a kind of cornball redneckery that was more a caricature of the South than anything,but when this flag was raised on official standards in response to desegregation, it forfeited its right to stand for anything but bigotry. That it flew above our half-masted national standard in the wake of the Charleston massacre is a national affront.